Are you looking to increase return rates on your current direct mail program or trying to decide if direct mail will be an effective marketing tool for you?

Well, you are not alone.

Mail still plays a strong role in today’s communications; it has evolved like the rest of our industry. One route to evolving mail to deliver success for you and your clients is to add an interactive layer to your direct mail campaign.

There are many digital communications tools available to you today that provide personalization and interactive content. So how do you go about taking steps to bring digital content into your direct mail program and which tools do you incorporate? Do you even know what your options are? Here are a few tips that can help start you in the right direction: 

Before you begin, it is important to understand the goals and objectives you wish to achieve and then plan accordingly. Here is where you would lay the groundwork for an interactive component.

It’s important for you to instruct your targets on what they need to do to receive what you’re offering, e.g., "mail back this card to receive two free issues of our publication." If it’s not clear what you’re asking your audience to do, chances are no action will be taken.

Good data and effective use of that data are the key building blocks to delivering targeted content that ultimately leads to a positive ROI. It’s crucial to determine where you get this data from (i.e., collected directly from customers or other micro-level activity, or purchased from a list provider) and how you’ll use the data to build profiles to more accurately deliver mail according to your targets' preferences.

Once you have the data figured out, you need to figure out how to link your print and digital resources. Some of the technologies that printers and mailers are using to bring more value to content owners and consumers include:

• pURL — takes the recipient to a landing page that was built uniquely for that individual based on either collected data or purchased data to help target the message. For example, a personalized URL (pURL) such as www.auto-ad-promotion.com/johnsmith could take Mr. Smith to a landing page that references his five year-old Chevy and invites him to visit his local dealer for a new minivan.
• QR Codes — can be personalized like a pURL, but because they can simply be scanned with a mobile device, they provide recipients with easier, more immediate access to online content. Imagine targeted text that is supplemented with an eye-catching QR code on an envelope; with QR codes, you can add instant creativity and relevance to your mail pieces.
• Hashtags — are most conducive to social media and are used to both tag and search for content. For example, a hashtag such as #mailtechnology could be used to publicize related content and create a community of interest around it.
• Image Recognition (IR) — uses mobile devices to scan an image and link it to content on the Internet. IR can be built from any image, a paragraph, or a picture etc., and then seamlessly embedded into your content.